Tumblr, with its wide variety of
content appealing to all walks of life, is the perfect environment for the
flaneur. Originally designed so as for everyone to have their own niche with
their own content, countless numbers of users have adapted it for a new purpose. These individuals browse through the site, scroll down their
dashboards, and consume content created by others potentially for hours on end.
Their actions on this network are often minimal. Instead of creating new
content, the flaneur on Tumblr may do nothing at all. However, more commonly they
are recognized through small actions that they make while browsing. Reblogging
and liking are minor things that, taken by themselves, leave a minimal impact
on the site itself.
These flaneurs aren’t invisible
however. They leave traces of their presence throughout the website. Unlike
wearing dandy outfits as described by Prouty (2009) however, one of the most
common ways the flaneur stands out with minimal participation is their use of
tags. Found on the bottom of each post if utilized, tags have become over time
something they weren’t intended for. Similar to the adaptation of Parisian arcades
and the unforeseen creation of the flaneur as discussed by Kuttainen (2017),
the use of tags in today’s Tumblr has become something more than its intention.
Rather than leaving comments on posts themselves, most Tumblr users today write
out their thoughts in the tags. Instead of providing key words to lead people
to related content, tags often consist of full sentences, trains of thought
that ramble on and lead to new ideas. They are, on a website that was created
for individuals to find community, one of the most commonly used ways that
people express themselves in a community where it’s all too easy to blend in.
Image 1. Example of the tags being used as a place for personal reflection (Mercer, 2017).
Common practice of the Parisian
flaneur was to walk a turtle on a leash, in order to slow themselves down and
really take in the environment around them (Prouty, 2009). The Tumblr flaneur
also has its turtle on a leash- something that slows them down, and also makes
them a conspicuous presence in the landscape. It’s all too easy to reblog items
on Tumblr, consuming the content at a rapid pace them moving on to the next
joke. Using tags slows users down, and makes them a conspicuous presence in the
landscape, even as they blend in. They aren’t creating content or becoming part
of the discourse. They’re a part of the Tumblr community, but as the Parisian
flaneur was described as useless and nonproductive by Prouty (2009) I posit
that the Tumblr flaneur is equally so. Yet, through their small actions on the
site, they manage to make themselves into spectacles, standing out from the
wide community through the words they hide under each post. Neither blending
into the community nor standing out as one of the creators within, the flaneur
is simply itself. Within Tumblr, their voice comes out strongest in their tags,
drawing in other people to see what they have to say.
References
Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002: Our Space: Networks,
narratives and the making of place, lecture 4: Maps. [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved
from http://learnjcu.edu.au
Mercer, C. (2017). Picture of my Tumblr dashboard
[Image]. Retrieved from https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard
Prouty, R. (2009, October 28). A Turtle on a Leash [Blog
post]. Retrieved from http://www.onewaystreet.typepad.com/one_way_street/2009/10/a-turtle-on-a-leash.html
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